A Fishy Tale - Orba Garra Fish Spa

One of the slightly wackier beauty crazes to make an impact in 2010, was the introduction of Fish Pedicures. When the Garra Rufa fish, found in Turkey, were discovered to have exfoliating properties when they would swarm on swimmers and nibble away at their dry skin. They are also used to give full body treatments.

Despite how quickly this craze took off, it's never appealed to me. I'm not really one to get up close and personal with wildlife and fish with a penchant for human skin are no exception, so I took my enthusiast colleague Saini along to sample the treatment on my behalf.

The High St Kensington branch of Superdrug is the first branch to introduce this treatment to its customers, who are encouraged to place their feet or hands into a tank of fish, which then nibble away dead skin to leave skin feeling soft and exfoliated.

Located downstairs, the fish live in two treatment tanks filled with clean, cold water, which is not only filtered but also has UV light sterilisation. The pedicure is painless with feet feeling a ticklish sensation.

Saini took to the treatment literally like a fish to water - and here's what she thought of it:
"I was pleasantly surprised about the fish pedicure. My first impression was that the concept of having fish nibbling on your feet was just that... fish nibbling on your feet! As I dipped my feet in, the fish rushed towards them, and I felt a strange sensation of picking under my feet. Since I am a fan of awkward things, I did enjoy the experience and envisioned it would be even more fun to be sitting next to a friend having a lunchtime chat and randomly laughing at the idea of fish at our feet! I must say I was quite surprised to find my feet did feel softer after my 20 minutes.

A couple of things could have been done to improve the overall experience however: a finishing moisturising foot cream should have been applied to add a final touch instead of my feet being wiped with a towel and put back into my boots. And also, since the fish aren't professional pedicurists(!) they could have buffed the soles of my feet to even out the smooth skin."

After the fish spa, feet or hands are indeed meant to rinsed, massaged and moisturised. I think due to the hilarious situation we found ourselves in (keep reading), this aspect of the treatment was prematurely overlooked.

Fellow beauty blogger Lina, of Make Up to Make Out was also on hand to try the treatment, whose reaction had us all in hysterics. Check it out for yourself ...

Don't expect miraculous results, as Saini points out, they're fish, not trained professionals but If you're open minded to trying an unconventional treatment for a bit of fun (and aren't scared of fish) then this may be up your street costing just £10 for 10 minutes and £15 for a 20 minute treatment.

Have you tried a fish pedicure? What were your thoughts? Would you like to try one for yourself?

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beauty lovers have sumthin to say:

I'd like to try it, although i have my doubts about it properly working. OMG that girl, well done to the lady squeezing her hand and the assistant, i would've lost my patience trying to coax her into it within 1 min never mind 5!! hehe ;) x